The cottage door is open wide, He sweeps a vagrant tear aside, Sees empty dear familiar chairs, Then gently mounts the oaken stairs At eventide. Ah! Yes! it is their eventide, For see! He finds them side by side, Wrapped in magnificent repose, Beyond the golden light that glows At eventide. AUTUMN. Lo! Sad-eyed Autumn walks o’er all the land, Tenderly touching with caressing hand, Each quivering leaflet, hung from parent stem, Bearing a radiant dew-kissed diadem; And tasselled ruddy gold and variant shade Droop o’er Psyche as in Arcadian glade She doth recline, and Autumn’s lover--Wind-- Chants solemn dirge for Summer, left behind To music of dead leaves, with tears of rain, While whispering, “Summer cometh yet again, And Autumn lingereth but a little while, With glance compassionate on flowers that smile In winsome beauty ere their blooms decay And change when Winter cometh cold and grey.” See! Satin-winged sweet butterflies have flown Like fairy sprites, to choose a graceful throne On crimson rose or soft hydrangea blue, Emblems of the transition we must view. These tender spirits through the fleeting hours Cull the sweet essence from the glorious flowers, And the short seasons pass and may not stay-- Ephemeral pleasures, too, must pass away. So, did not Autumn Winter meet, and Winter Spring, Dear Summer’s charms would vanish nor hope bring Then melancholy Autumn with her Wind may sigh, For Spring, her smiling sister, cometh by-and-bye. TO SLEEP.